I STILL have a drivetrain vibe and HOW do I get it fixed?

I give up on it.

I had it with my last engine, and now still have it with my new engine.

It is that infamous "waaaahrrrrr-waaaaahrrrrr-waaaahrrrrr" that you can feel through the floor, steering wheel, and it is rattling my gauges and gauge cluster out of the dash board.

I have done all the trans stuff: new trans mounts, new motor mounts, new trans bushings and seals, new TRANS!!!

Then new engine, let off the CalTrac preload, took the drive shaft in for balance and straighten, and new U-joints. Had the rearend re-set and verified the settings on the rear gears.

I have recently shimmed up the rear to zero degrees pinion angle.

Still vibrating the car to crap.

Any other ideas on how to fix this?

More info--new Professional Products balancer, different converter.

The only other thing bothering me is that my pulleys aren't alligned right on and i keep throwing the belt, but I am about to buy a 3 pulley set to line those up.

Engine purrs like a kitten over 4k rpm, but vibrates like crazy under that and makes the mirrors and the entire car run like it is about to shake itself apart.

I am done trying to figure out where this vibe is coming from and need to take it to an "expert". What kind of mechanic do I need to search for to fix this problem?

 

got a torque strap/chain/some kind of solid mounts? on the motor?

 

Re-set your pinion angle to 3Deg negative(downward angle)and see what happens.You dont want the pinion at zero when its static...It will climb to a positive angle while rolling down the road.You want it at zero while at cruise speed.Look to see if you have a header tube hitting the chassis somewhere,that will send a vibe through the car as will hard mounted exhaust systems...The resonance gets sent through the chassis.Is your exhaust system hard mounted(not with rubber isolated hangers??)

 

You too, huh ? I've done it all with mine too. Last thing I'm going to try is remove the pinion shims I added last year. I've got the vibes in mine down to near zero, but there's still that last little bit to remove. Have you gotten it up on blocks and run it with the transmission in gear while watching it from underneath ? I also had to replace the pinion bearings in the 9" chunk that came from an 81 Bronco. The originals were pitted pretty bad. Also replaced the pinion yoke. And recently discovered I was running the wrong cups on the rear joint in the yoke (I blame that on a piss-poor drop light)

 

my car used to suffer from this problem also...than my flexplate went...and i replaced it. my cars so quiet now it feels like somethings wrong...lol. i'm not sure what would make a flexplate vibrate like that...but after we replaced mine i have no vibration issues. and yes I've had the vibration for all 30+ thousand miles I've owned the car, and I've had the flex plate out and found no cracks or issues with it. but when i replaced it with a new one(new according to the eBay seller) the vibration went away.

 

I had a vibration also. It was a rear wheel. I kept having to change out the seal. It made a wrarr wrarrr wrarr noise at higher speeds.

 

X2 on the rear bearings

brad

 

Change your pinion angle. Check driveshaft for ballance.

 

about 6 to 8 years ago i read an artical in car craft i think. it went over fixing a vibration in a nova. they did it all. they did all the angles, new yoke on the diff, new u-joints, had the drive shaft balanced and some other stuff. still could not get it perfect. then they found a company that makes an on car drive shaft balancer. it was pretty trick. it use optics and a vibration sensor to figure out how much weight and were to put it. they claimed that it was super smooth after that. ive never been able to find the artical or the company that made the tool that did the balanceing. ill try seraching some more but ive never been able to find it. maybe somebody else will find it. ive dealt with some problem cars for vibration at my shop and i would consider buying the tool for the shop if i could find it.

 

OK, but for the first time ever, I am asking "WHO" can fix this. I am done messing with it, and am ready to hire someone else to diagnose the problem and fix it for me.

I have sunk several hundred hours and dollars into fixing this issue, and recognize that it is now time to hire some professional to do it right NOW for whatever it costs, before it tears something up.

Who do I take it to? Someone local, or do I need to search out a specialist, and if so, what kind?

 

that type of vibration is really hard to find like you have discovered. i dont know the local shops around you but a drive shaft shop or a transmission shop should know what to look for or know of somebody to send you to.

 

The hard part will be getting a shop that wants to take a real interest in fixing it. Not to burst your bubble or anything but I know a lot of fellow techs and I'd have a real hard time trying to get one to take on that job.
You need to find a good driveline shop with an experienced tech.
Like I mentioned in a prior post you may want to consider the exhaust drone. Your vibration may be more severe than mine though.

 

I know the exhaust drone is part of what I feel in the vibes in mine, but there's still a teeny tiny bit in the driveline.

 

I know some of what I am hearing is exhaust drone, but there is no way it is bad enough that I have to jamb popsicle sticks in all the cracks of my dash to keep it from rattling. My hands go numb in a half hour of driving from the vibration through the steering wheel.

Rear end was rebuilt about 2k miles ago, and the guy looked at my axle bearings and said they did not need to be replaced. Those are the only thing that aren't new. All bearings in the rear are new.

Driveshaft was straightened and balanced less than 1k ago and they included new u-joints at that time. Exhaust hangs from rubber tabs under the car. I may have a header touching...I haven't checked that.

I had 4 degrees pinion angle, and zeroing it out helped. I can easily adjust pinion angle down by using my caltracs just to see if it fixes the sound, and if it does, I can remove the shims.

I bought a new 50oz flexplate (one of those sfi approved to 12,500 rpm ones) and a good balancer when I put in the 5.0.

When it was on the dyno, I asked the guy to cruise it at 3k for a few seconds and listen, and he said it was "normal" and most likey wheel noise, but I am not satisifed with that.

Blu, what do you mean by "the rear wheel"?

An why does this noise go away above 4k and is completely silent up to 7k, only to rattle my head off at cruising speeds (2500-3500 rpms)?

 

I bet exhaust. What mufflers do you have? Do you have over the axle pipes....or dumps in front of the axle?